It was a sigh of relief for residents of Ludhiana as Lakkar bridge that had been hanging fire for 17 years due to a tussle between the MC and Railways was thrown open from one side (Reikhy Cinema point) on Friday.

Now the bridge is open for public from the railway station to Hambran road while the other side is not yet completed.

Talking to Newsline, Kalia said, “Political persons cannot do any inaugurations. Thus, as per the code of conduct guidelines, administration officers opened the bridge for public.”

Jarangal said, “We were waiting for the clearance letter from railways which came at 4 pm today and thus we opened the bridge today itself.”

The proposed Y-shaped bridge with its one side near Reikhy Cinema and the other near Bhadaur House is still nowhere near completion.

Proposed in 1997, the work on this bridge was literally stalled for more than a decade due to technical hiccups. It was in 2009 that the then mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura and Ludhiana Improvement Trust chairman Ashok Juneja flagged off the pending work. Since then the bridge has seen nothing but the shifting deadlines from August-October-December 2011 to December 2012 and then July 31, 2013.

The project which was initially proposed at a cost of Rs 10 crore in 1997; now it is likely to cost a whopping Rs 46 crore.